The V&A Museum in London has five of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks in its collection. This one, known as Codex Forster III, was used by Leonardo da Vinci between 1490 and 1493, when he was working in Milan for Duke Ludovico Sforza.
It's a small notebook, the kind of size you could easily keep in a coat pocket. It's filled with all sorts of ideas, notes, and sketches, including "sketches of a horse’s legs... drawings of hats and cloths that may have been ideas for costumes at balls, and an account of the anatomy of the human head."1 While you can't turn the pages of the notebook in the museum, you can page through it online.
Reading his handwriting is not easy, between the calligraphic style and his use of mirror-writing (backwards, from right to left) but I find it fascinating to see how he puts all sorts into one notebook. It's a working notebook, not a showpiece. If you ever worried that your creativity journal wasn't somehow properly done or organized, take your lead from this master: do it as you need.
1. Explore the Forster Codices, V&A Museum. (Accessed 8 August 2010.)
It's a small notebook, the kind of size you could easily keep in a coat pocket. It's filled with all sorts of ideas, notes, and sketches, including "sketches of a horse’s legs... drawings of hats and cloths that may have been ideas for costumes at balls, and an account of the anatomy of the human head."1 While you can't turn the pages of the notebook in the museum, you can page through it online.
Reading his handwriting is not easy, between the calligraphic style and his use of mirror-writing (backwards, from right to left) but I find it fascinating to see how he puts all sorts into one notebook. It's a working notebook, not a showpiece. If you ever worried that your creativity journal wasn't somehow properly done or organized, take your lead from this master: do it as you need.
- Find Out More:
- The Leonardo da Vinci Notebooks Known as the the Forster Codices
- Painting Techniques of the Old Masters: Leonardo da Vinci
- The Famous Mona Lisa Painting
- Artist's Quotes: Leonardo da Vinci
- Book Review: Leonardo on Painting
1. Explore the Forster Codices, V&A Museum. (Accessed 8 August 2010.)
